Magnum Pleasure Hunt leaves users searching
Lara O’Reilly is Marketing Week’s digital and telecoms specialist and here she gives her own view on what companies from Apple to Zynga are up to in the wired world of the web.
Unilever appears to have shot itself in the foot with its very own Magnum.
This week it launched a new Flash advergame for its popular ice cream brand, named the Magnum Pleasure Hunt.
Players control a woman who darts, jumps and swings around the internet, grabbing chocolate bonbons to gain points.
There’s some great brand integration embedded in the gameplay, with the lady dancing around the Spotify website, driving a Saab convertible (right) and jumping into a YouTube fashion video (below).
But when I search for “Magnum game” I’m presented with an ad-filled page teaching me how to gamble (presumably I’m also gambling with my Mac’s safety by clicking on it), a game site that looks as though it was designed in 1998 and a Malaysian gambling game that promises me “winning results”.
Vegetarians probably shouldn’t Google “Magnum Hunt” either…
I didn’t fare better on Magnum’s official Facebook page. The game is hidden away on the left-hand menu and there appears to be no mention on the Page’s wall.
I am told by people close to the campaign that we should see more ads and social media activity for the game soon.
But I am a little confused as to why Unilever would not want to shout about such a fantastically executed (and no doubt expensive) project from the outset. There’s only so much buzz us bloggers can blast out!
